Property Market Fact File – November 2012

Bank Lending Rate
It has been confirmed that the Bank of England Monetary Committee have decided that the Bank Base Rate is to remain at 0.5% for a further month. It has been at this very low level for a record period since March 2009.
Source: Bank of England

Mortgage Lending by the Major UK Lenders
According to initial data from the major UK lenders, (which comprises Banco Santander, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide and Royal Bank of Scotland), total mortgage approvals for house purchase in September fell slightly to £5.7 billion against the previous months’ £5.8 billion. Remortgaging rose from August’s £2.5 billion to £2.8 billion in September.
Source: Bank of England

ONS House Price Index figures.
Figures for the year to August 2012, released by the Office for National Statistics, show that house prices increased by 1.8% in the period, to an average of £234k.
The average house price in England in August 2012 was £242k, £161k inWales, £129k in Northern Ireland and £184k in Scotland. London, the South East and the East of England were the only regions whose house prices were higher than the UK average.
Over the year, England’s rise was 2.1%, Scotland’s was 0.5% and Wales’ was 1.4%. Northern Ireland’s figure fell by 12.8% over the year.
Splitting England into regions, London’s prices rose by 6.3%, and the South East rose by 2.4%. However, prices in the South West fell by 0.7%.
The average price paid for a new-build dwelling was £214k, which is 3% higher than the previous year. The average price paid for pre-owned buildings was £235k, which is 1.7% higher than the previous year.
Source: ONS

Land Registry’s Property Prices in England and Wales
The Average price of a property in England and Wales is now £162,561 as at the end of September 2012, according to the report published on 26th October 2012.
The Monthly change in September in England and Wales was a 0.3% fall.
The Annual change to September in England and Wales was a rise of 1.1%.
Source: Land Registry

Halifax House Price Index figures.
The average price of a house by the end of September 2012 was £159,486, according to the Halifax House Price Index published 4th October 2012. House prices in August were 0.4% lower than in August, and the quarterly figure was down by 0.5%. The seasonally adjusted figures show that house prices are 1.2% lower than at this time last year, measured by the average for the latest quarter against the same period a year earlier.
Source: Halifax

Nationwide House Price Index figures
Nationwide House Price Index figures published on 1st November 2012 showed that the average cost of a home in the UK was £164,153 during the month of October. After seasonal adjustment, this is a 0.6% rise from September, but the annual rate is down by 0.9%.
Source: Nationwide

Rightmove House Price Index figures
Rightmove’s October survey (published 15th October 2012) shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 9th September 2012 to 6th October 2012 was £243,168, an increase of 3.5% on the previous month. House asking prices are now 1.5% higher than a year ago.
Source: Rightmove

Acadametrics House Price Index figures
LSL Property Services/Acadametrics’ September figures, published 12th October, show that the average house price in England and Wales was £225,374 in September. This is a fall of 0.1% from August, but a 2.2% rise since last September.
Source: Acadametrics Ltd

RICS Survey Overview
The RICS Housing Market Survey for September 2012 (published 9th October 2012) says that the “price balance turns less negative”.
Once again, Yorkshire & Humberside saw the largest fall in house prices in the month, and only London saw prices rising.
In the month of September, Wales had the highest level of agreed sales, whereas the West Midlands once again had the lowest.
The North West had the highest level of new buyer enquiries in the month, whilst East Anglia had the lowest.
The highest level of new vendor instructions was again in the North of England, and the lowest was in Scotland.
Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

New Mortgages granted – August Actual Figures
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that “lending was weighed down by weak remortgage lending in August, despite a strong increase in house purchase lending”.
55,300 loans were made in August for house purchase, worth £8.4 billion. This is higher than July both in number (11.7%), and in value (10.5%). These figures are up 10.8% and 9.1% (respectively) than last August’s figures.
Of these, first-time buyer loans totalled 21,600, valued at £2.8 billion, which is up by 13.7% in number and up by 12.0% in value on last month. This is 18.0% higher in number and 21.7% higher in value compared to last August’s figures.
Home movers’ loans totalled £5.7 billion, and numbered 33,800. These figures are 11.8% higher than July in terms of value, and 10.5% higher in number. These figures are up 5.6% and 6.6% (respectively) on last August.
However, the number and value of remortgage loans fell in the month – 21,700 loans worth £2.9 billion in August. These figures are 10.0% lower than last month’s in terms of volume, and 9.4% lower in value. They have decreased by 36.9% in number and 32.6% by value since last August.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders

New Mortgages granted – September Estimates
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that September’s estimated figure for gross mortgage lending in the UK was £11.6 billion. This is a fall of 10% from August (£12.9 billion), and a 15% fall from last September’s £13.7 billion.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders

Regional trends in Rightmove Estate Agents Asking House Prices in England and Wales.
Rightmove’s October survey shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 9th September 2012 to 6th October 2012 increased in all of the ten identified areas of England and Wales.
The largest monthly increase was in Greater London, where asking prices rose by 4.8% over the month from £456,237 to £478,071. London’s annual increase was 6.2%, the largest of the regional rises.
In a change of fortune from last month, East Anglia this time saw the smallest rise – a rise of only 0.4%. Average prices there rose from £229,231 in September to £230,057 in October. The annual increase there was 1.1%.
The largest annual decrease was of 1.8% in the South-East, from £317,055 in October 2011 to £311,438 in October this year. However, the monthly rise there was 3.9%.
Source: Rightmove

Regional Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales.
The Land Registry’s September survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per region as follows:
The largest monthly increase was in Wales, which saw an increase over the month of 0.5%, bringing the average house price in the region to £117,264. However, this is 1.2% lower than this time last year.
The largest monthly decrease in price is Yorkshire & Humberside, where the average price is down 2.2% to £115,853, which is 3.0% lower than a year ago. The North-East had the largest annual decrease of 3.2% since
The highest annual increase was once again London, which saw a 5.5% increase.
Source: Land Registry

Analysis of Acadametrics HPI data by region
The September figures show 4 regions had an increase in house prices in the year to end August 2012 – Greater London (8.2% to £421,778), the North and the South East (both 2.2%, to £139,085 and £270,872 respectively) and the South West (1.3% to £223,001). The North West saw a fall of 2.7% (to £148,229). Wales saw a fall of 0.5% this month to £150,599, compared to a rise of 1% in the year to July.
Source: Acadametrics

Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales by County/Unitary authority.
The Land Registry’s September survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per county or unitary authority as follows:
4 counties and authorities saw no price movement at all in the month.
The greatest monthly price increase is in Newport, Gwent, where the average price is up by 2.1% to £112,383. However, this is 3.5% down on last year.
The greatest monthly decrease in price is Middlesbrough, where prices fell by 2.3% to an average of £80,947. This is 1.0% up on last year.
The largest annual drop was Blaenau Gwent, which saw a fall of 8.3% on last year, to £66,650 – there was a monthly drop of 0.3% here.Hartlepool saw the greatest annual increase – up 5.7% to £84,672 – and the monthly change was also an increase (1.9%).
Source: Land Registry

Analysis of Acadametrics HPI data by County/Unitary Authority
The area with the largest increase in house prices between August 2011 and August 2012 was Bath and Northeast Somerset, where the average house price rose by 10.8% to £316,744. The Vale of Glamorgan also saw a rise – house prices there rose by 9.3% to £216,220. These were the only two regions to have seen larger increases than Greater London’s 8.2%, where the avergae house price is £419,630.
The greatest decreases were Torfaen’s 6.1% drop (to £122,174), and Blackpool’s and Nottingham’s 6.0% drop (to £99,151 and £109,825 respectively).
Only Luton and Wrexham had statistically insignificant changes in average house prices over the year, although Cornwall and Herefordshire’s increases were only 0.1%, and Norfolk’s drop was only 0.1%.
Source: Acadametrics

Rightmove’s analysis of asking prices by London Borough.
In the period from 9th September 2012 to 6th October 2012, the asking prices in Kensington and Chelsea rose by 9.1% (£2,207,472). Brent was the next best performer, with an increase of 8.6% (£665,943). These were the top two boroughs in terms of rising prices.
In Haringey, asking prices fell by 1.4% in the month – the only borough to see falling prices this month. The average house price in Haringey is now £544,062.
Kensington and Chelsea also saw the highest annual rise (15.1%) followed closely by Hounslow with a 15% increase to £559,566.
Havering saw the largest annual decrease, where average asking prices have fallen by 2.5% over the year to £261,401. The next borough to have experienced an annual drop is Sutton, where the average asking price fell by 1.7%, to an average price of £343,246.
Source: Rightmove

Acadametrics data analysed by London Borough
Comparing August 2011 to August 2012, Kensington & Chelsea had an increase in house prices of 22.8% to an average of £1,437,122. This is the most expensive borough. At the other end of the scale, Barking & Dagenham saw a decrease of 0.8% over the period, to an average of £177,410. This is the cheapest borough in terms of house prices.
The report states that “The buyer of an average property in Kensington & Chelsea, priced at £1.4 million, would be able to purchase eight houses in Barking & Dagenham for a similar outlay and still have some change.”
Source: Acadametrics

Rightmove’s Asking Prices by Property Type
Rightmove have published figures showing National Asking Prices analysed by property type.
In the year to 6th October 2012, the average change over all property types is an increase of 1.5%. All types of property (which Rightmove classify) are up on last year. Terraced properties’ asking prices showed a 2.2% increase, while Detached properties’ prices rose by 2.7%. Semi-detached property asking prices rose by 1.2% since last year, but Flats’ and Apartments’ prices have done less well, at a 0.9% increase over the year.
Source: Rightmove

Land Registry’s Average Prices by Property Type
The Land Registry’s August average price figures analysed by property type show that the prices over all types of property rose by 1.1% in the year since September 2011. The average price is now £162,561.
Flats & Maisonette properties rose by 3.6% to £155,461 over the year, but Detached properties fell by 0.2%, to £254,843. Once again, Semi-Detached properties stayed much the same (from £152,201 to £152,685), but Terraced properties rose by 1.2% to an average of £123,301.
Source: Land Registry

Latest Property Sales Volumes by price range
According to the Land Registry’s September Report, in July 2012, 56,509 sales transactions took place in England and Wales, and 8,217 in London. This represents a fall of 9% in England & Wales, and a fall of 5% in London since last July’s figures, (56,509 and 8,685 respectively).
In the price bracket of over £1 million, the volume of sales in the month rose in both London and the rest of England & Wales. In London it rose from 454 to 538 – a rise of 19%, and in England & Wales it rose from 725 to 817 – a rise of 13%.
However, at the other end of the market (below £250k), in both England and Wales and London, the volume fell: by 12% from 45,674 to 40,383 in England & Wales, and by 14% from 3,386 to 2,914 in London.
Source: Land Registry

Land Registry Sales Volumes
In the quarter from April to July 2012 (the latest for which figures are available), the average number of house sales per month was 52,309. This is down on the same period in 2011, when the average was 54,935 sales per month.
Source: Land Registry

Acadametrics Transaction volumes
The volume of completed transactions for the quarter ending August 2012 has been estimated at just under 50,000, which is a drop of 24% on last month.
LSL have analysed this by region and property type:
The extremes: Flats in Yorkshire and Humberside fell by 13% on the same quarter in 2011, and by 12% in East Anglia. The volume of Semi-detached properties in the East Midlands and of Terraced properties in the North, both fell by 10%. However, the number of Detached properties sold in the West Midlands rose by 9% compared with the same period in 2011.
Overall, the South West and the South East are the only regions to display a rise in transaction volumes in the quarter. Both the North and East Anglia fell by 6%.
Source: Acadametrics

Housing Supply figures for the financial year 2011-12.
The Office for National Statistics released figures on 1st November 2012, showing that the net housing supply inEnglandrose by 11% in the year to 31st March 2012, compared with the previous year.
The net total of 134,900 includes 128,160 new build homes, 5,240 homes resulting from conversions (e.g. from houses to flats), and 12,590 homes due to change of use of existing buildings.
This is the first rise for three years, but the total is still 35% below the peak of 207,370 net additional homes in 2007-08.
The number of dwellings lost due to demolitions (12,200) has been steadily falling – this is an 18% drop on last year and is 40% down on 2007-08.
New affordable housing is defined by the ONS as “additional housing units provided to eligible households whose needs are not met by the market”. The figures do not include losses to the housing stock, but do include acquisitions from the private sector.
The gross supply of affordable housing increased by 57,950 during the year. This is 4% down on last year. 52,880 of these were new build homes. This represents 91% of all affordable homes provided in the year, the highest percentage for over twenty years.
Source: ONS

Outstanding Mortgage Debt
The average outstanding mortgage for the 11.2m households who currently have mortgages is estimated at £111,793 in August 2012.
Total secured lending in the UK on dwellings was £1,256 billion at the end of August 2012. This is up from the previous August’s £1,242 billion.
Source: Credit Action

Hometrack Monthly House Price Survey
Hometrack compile sample data monthly from thousands of Estate Agents in all 2,300 postcodes in England and Wales. The figures are weighted according to postcode, but not seasonally adjusted.
October’s figures (published 29th October) show that the average amount of time that a house is on the market has remained static at 9.9 weeks. Regionally, this ranges from 5.7 weeks in London to 12.9 weeks in the North West.
On average, 93.2% of the asking price is achieved, ranging from 94.3% inLondon, down to 91.9% in the North West.
5.7% of postcode districts reported a price increase in October, a rise from 3.6% in August but a fall from 6.0% in September. 31.0% had a price decrease over the month, up from 27.1% in August and 23.6% in September.
Source: Hometrack